The male gaze in Chicago film (2002) Twyke Ridhatilla Ayu Sindy ABSTRACT This study is to identify and analyze how the male gaze operates in Chicago Film (2002). Based on Male Gaze theory by Laura Mulvey used in this study, it focuses on the gaze of the man audiences when looks at the women. This study will identify several frames of scenes in the movie which focus on two female characters in this film in orderto identify and investigate how the male gaze operates in this film. Identifying this movie by using qualitative method of film studies, the writer identifiedthe aspects of narrative and non-narrative (camera shoots, camera angle, make-up and costume) and found that the movie carried much conviction that women are being the object of male gazeto fulfill the desire of the audiences especially the men. Keywords: Male Gaze; Narrative; Non-Narrative; Women 1. Introduction In modern era, media (electronic and print) have been growing significantly and supporting any issue around our life.One ofpopular issue raised in the media is women’s issue. Nowadays, the women’s issues become the focus of the feminists for 30 years (Byerly & Ross 2006, p. 17).One of the issues raised and to be discussed is several research findingsregarding the position or representation of women in the media as the object. ‘Tuchman et al.’s work, they found that advertising, television, films, news, and other genres in Western nations, as well as those in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, disproportionately emphasized women’s traditional domestic roles or treated them as sex object.” (Byerly & Ross 2006, p. 17) Like Tuchman says, film is one of media using women as the object and positioning women as sexual object. Women become the actresses who are displayed in the film and there are two levels which positionthe women as the display: “Traditionally, the women displayed have functioned on two levels: as erotic object for characters within the screen story, and as erotic object for the spectators within the auditorium, with a shifting tension between the looks on either side on the screen.” (Gigi Durham & Kellner 2006, p. 347). The important thing is who watch the film. Audiences arethe subjects who watch the film. The audiences start to make a gaze staring at the film. Based on Lacan’s theory, McGowan states that the gaze is the objet petit a of the scopic drive (the drive that motivates us to look) (2007, p.6). McGowan explaines the objet petit a as a special term about the entity of gap between the subject (audiences) and film. This gap within our look shoots the point at which our desire manifests itself in what we see. Gazeas an object acts to trigger our desire visually, and as such it is what Lacan calls an objet petit a or object-cause of desire (2007, p. 5). The way audiences or the spectators watch the object is called spectatorship.Judith Mayne suggests that spectatorship is not only the act of watching a film, but also the way one takes pleasure in the experience (Bainbridge 2008, p. 32). From the explanation above about media, the women’s issue and film, in this study the writer attempts to investigate the issue of women as the object. The study is about The Male Gaze in Chicago Film. Chicago is a Broadway film that uses women as the actresses who perform at the Broadway stage. Chicago, a film by Miramax production, is a Broadway Musical Chicago originally directed and choreographed by Rob Marshall. This film was released in 2002. Therefore, the same as the explanation about the result of Tuchman’s research that women are object (sexual object), there is a similar issue to be analyzed in this study. In this film, women are displayedon the stage. On stage, women are unaware that the audiences are watching them.The act of viewing the activities of other people unbeknown to them is called voyeurism (Hayward 2000, p. 446). In the film, 69 Allusion Volume 02 Number 01 (February 2013) | Twyke Ridhatilla Ayu Sindy the director directs the position of the camera which films the act of the women on the stage. The camera which shoots the women on the stage alsoenactsas the voyeur (the agents who view the act). From the performing of women’s sexiness on the stage, the director wants to create a fantasy for the audiences. The fantasy created by the film-maker is in-relation to but distinct from the fantasy perceived by the spectator as constituted subject (Hayward 2000, p. 109). As already explained before, about two levels of women as display, women as the erotic object for the spectators within the auditorium means that women are watched by audiences. Audiences have the gaze that can trigger their desire. ”Fantasy is inextricably linked with desire, which, according to Lacan, is located in the imaginary. Fantasy is the conscious articulation of desire, through either images or storie – it is, then, the mise-en-scène of desire.” (Hayward 2000, p. 109) McGowan states (2007, p. 7-8)that, based on Lacan’s theory about the gaze in visual field,the gaze is not the spectator’s external view of the filmic image, but the mode in which the spectator is accounted for within the film itself.In this film, the women are the performers on the stage which have the talent for entertaining the audiences (being looked at as the object). The women have the appearance which can attract the audiences. For supporting how male gaze operates in this film, the writer will identify the aspects of this film based on narrative and non-narrative.There are two main components in narrative, story and the plot. For the non-narrative, there is mise-en-scène. Mise-en-scène is the tools of how to read the shoot of the film. Monaco explaines (2000, p. 179) that mise-en-scène is to answer two main questions, what to shoot and how to shoot it. There are a lot of aspects in mise-en-scène, however only camera shoots, camera angle, costume, and make-up will be analyzed in this study. This study uses the “Male Gaze” theory by Laura Mulvey which argues that women are the object of pleasure and men are the bearer. In her article Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, there are two ideas bound in the Mulvey’s theory ‘Male Gaze’ (Mulvey, 1975). Mulvey usesFreud’s (psychoanalysis)and Lacan’s theories. Mulvey explains about the pleasure of looking at the object. Scopophilia (Mulvey 1989, p. 16), i,e., we are in a shape that looking itself or being looked at is kind of a source of pleasure, so the people can be the objects, and subjecting them as the controlling and curious gaze. The identification of ego is based on Lacan’s theory (Mulvey 1989, p. 17). It is the theory that shows the audiences’ process to identify their self by looking at the mirror. In the mirror, we can look at you and identify who we are. Lacan says that when we (child) look ourself in the mirror; it can be the crucial constitution of the ego. This process is not good enough for the child’s ego because the image in the mirror may not be as good as our hope. There is a misrecognition which some children believe that their reflection is more perfect than their self. In the film, this theory is implemented in the identification of the audiences. The screen of the film is like a mirror through which the audiences can feel their feeling regarding the movie. It is a kind of joyous, and also the narcissism. Mulvey splits the spectators into two, active spectators (male), and passive spectators (female) (Mulvey 1989, p. 19). As the active spectators, men’s eyes are to be the camera looking at theobject (women). Women are displayed as sexual object and being looked at, and their appearance is the codeof strong visual and erotic. Therefore, the female is connoted to-be-looked-at-ness. There are a number of previous studies discussing women issues particularly women as the object.The first is ‘Cyberbabes: (Self-) Representation of Women and the Virtual Male Gaze’ conducted by Sullivan (1997). In her article, Sullivan uses the theoretical framework of Laura Mulvey “Male Gaze.” Sullivan argues that: “Mulvey argued that the operations of classical Hollywood cinema positioned the camera so as to represent the male character’s point of view and to encourage male spectators to identify voyeuristically with this male character who invariably observes women.” (Sullivan 1997, p. 191). Sullivan’s research discusses about the implications of the operation of the male gaze in the milieu of the Web, drawing on examples of “Cyberbabe” Web-sites. This reasearch analyzes the women as the object of male’s pleasure in the websites which are accessed mostly by men. The next previous study is an undergraduate research of English Department Airlangga University conducted by Greta Maurita Rahany. The title of the research is”Male Gaze on Axe Advertisements: Semiotic Study.” She proposes two objects of the study namely the AXE advertisement with library 70 The Male Gaze in Chicago Film (2002) version and the one with sauce version which are taken from the internet. She describes the objects in details through narrative and non-narrative aspects. Camera techniques used in this study is the camera shot that consists of establishing shot, long shot, medium shot, over-the-shoulder-shot, and close-up shot (mostly used in the objects). The last research used in this study is conducted by Rina Saraswati for her master degree thesis.